When My Fiancee is the Company Manager

The smell of disinfectant was like countless fine needles, piercing my nasal passages with a sour, aching sting. I half-reclined on the hospital bed, gazing at the mottled water stains on the ceiling, the twisting pain in my stomach tightening in relentless waves. The drip from the IV line on my wrist kept its relentless ticking, each drop striking my frayed nerves like a tolling bell. The mobile phone suddenly vibrated, its sound piercing the silence of the ward, like a death knell stirring dread in my heart. I struggled to turn and reach the phone on the bedside table; the screen lit up, the name "Linda Carter" flickering in the darkness, and my heart sank as if plunged into an icy tomb. "Mark Young, where did you put the White Group's project proposal?" Her voice came through the receiver, laced with its customary impatience, as cold as ice, without so much as asking why I was hospitalized, as if I should be sitting in the office on standby right now. A sharp pain suddenly twisted in my stomach, as if a hand were mercilessly wrenching it from within. Clutching my abdomen, I curled up, gritting my teeth in agony, my voice trembling: "It's... in the encrypted folder on the company server; the password is our anniversary." "Understood." She abruptly ended the call, without so much as a word of basic concern. Only the busy signal remained in the receiver, hammering against my heart like a heavy blow. I stared bitterly at the ceiling, the curve of my lips more wrenching than tears. For this project, I had endured three sleepless nights in a row, my eyes bloodshot, the dull ache in my stomach long dismissed. Until yesterday afternoon, when gastric bleeding suddenly erupted, and my colleagues rushed me to the hospital; still clutching the half-revised proposal, the paper drenched in cold sweat. The nurse came in to change my dressing; seeing my pale face, she couldn't help but click her tongue and sigh, "Young man, life is more important than work." Your gastric bleeding must not be taken lightly; you need to rest properly. I tugged at the corners of my mouth without speaking, but inside I felt as if something was choking me, stifling me with suffocating weight. Linda Carter's coldness was like a basin of ice water poured over me from head to toe, chilling me to the bone.